This invention relates to a submunition projectile having a deployable stabilizing band mounted on a rearward portion of the projectile.
A submunition projectile (bomblet) of the above-outlined type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,419. The projectile described therein includes a fuze having an axially shiftable firing pin carrier and a slide which has a detonator charge and which is shiftable transversely to the projectile axis from a safety position into a firing position. A first firing pin is mounted on the firing pin carrier on its side oriented towards the slide. In the safety state of the projectile the first firing pin projects into a recess and is coupled with a projectile stabilizing band on its side oriented away from the slide. Further, as a backup detonator, the slide carries a pyrotechnic delay charge with a primer for the self-destruction of the bomblet. The primer may be ignited by a second firing pin affixed laterally in the fuze housing.
To ensure that the slide, together with the detonator charge is shifted into the firing position in the known bomblets, the bomblet, after being ejected from the carrier projectile, must rotate about its longitudinal axis so that the centrifugal forces affecting the stabilizing band and the slide result in an unscrewing of the first firing pin from the recess of the slide and cause a displacement of the slide from the safety position into the firing position in which the first firing pin is in alignment with the detonator charge.
It is, among others, a disadvantage of submunition projectiles of the above-outlined type that they cannot be fired from weapon systems in which the submunition projectiles, after their ejection over the target area, do not rotate with a sufficient rpm or do not rotate at all. This occurs, for example, when the bomblets are delivered into the target area by wing-stabilized carrier projectiles, such as rockets.
While it is feasible in non-rotating submunition projectiles to cause a shift of the detonator carrier by means of an armed spring, such a solution, however, is, as a rule, not admissible for safety reasons because in case of a break-off of the first firing pin, the detonator carrier would automatically shift the detonator carrier into its firing position and thus the self-destructing (backup) charge would be ignited.